Hi All,

Life along the Maacama Fault was quiet yesterday as Don and I rolled through. Though it was beautiful in Lake County in its own special way. Near the lake they have a lot of scrub Oak and acres upon acres of dry grass. We spotted a deer and two fawns at one point and right in the hub of things a great looking rooster which Don of course had to feed.

I can't tell you how much I hate winding roads. The best scenery of course is along those roads. We stopped on a nearby hillside to enjoy the view of the lake. It's a lot larger than it seems on the USGS maps. I told Don at one point that he had to slow down because the brake pedal on my side of the car was wearing out. I can't believe so many choose to commute on those roads, for the hour and half drive over the hill. Talk about difficult. I met a woman once who told me she used to cry every morning before she drove to work because she hated the drive so much.

After reading the dialogue below I had a thought. We should all be thankful that someone does not understand what it is that we are asking of him. This truly is a good thing. If he understood what we wanted and delivered it and got lucky a few times, the rest of us would never be able to live with it. See, every cloud has a silver lining. I once asked a noted predictive seismologist about an article I read on the web where it said he had five cream-of-the-crop ways to predict earthquakes. I asked him what they were and he failed to reply. He hasn't made very many predictions over the years and according to my record keeping, I've had more hits with ear tones than he has with all of his years of experience. Mind you, I'm not doing as well as I'd like to.

Now back to life sitting on the RCF. This little house was just painted about a month ago and the poor thing has all of its patched cracks breaking plaster already. Mind you, I'm used to it. I think it brings character to a house, especially when everyone makes note of these little hairline beauties. It's a funny place. I swear you could place a ball on the floor in any room and it would end up in the dip in the hallway. One visitor noted that walking from one room to the next gave her vertigo. It's really a novelty. I bet none of you are enjoying this in your homes. Come to think of it, if my bed rolled out of my room during a quake, it would probably get stuck in the hallway dip.

Ok. Last, but not least. Today I began construction on a focal point for my backyard. It's a totally empty space about 100 X 75 feet. I began placing rocks in a circle and filling the circle with dirt and suddenly I was propelled into thought about Richard Dreyfuss when he was trying to build the Devils Tower in his livingroom. Actually, he had a whole lot more material at hand than I did today, but hey, I'm not into taking my neighbors good stuff for my project. I really need a lot more rocks. Guess what Don's gonna be doing in the months ahead.

Don really is a good driver...just ask anyone but me.

Petra